Thursday, February 09, 2006

A simple but slightly different way to have green beans as a side dish with rice and sambar... I didnt have the time or energy to make paruppu usili with the beans.

Then my eyes fell on the as-yet unopened packet of mor molagai that I had brought back from my December trip to India, and I had an idea - why not use the mor molagai to flavour the beans?

Good idea, as it turned out. The fresh taste of the green beans came through without being overpowered, and the crushed chillies provided a nice tangy yet hot flavour. Thumbs up for this one, even if I was the only one to eat it! (Pete's not good with chillies!)

1. Fry the mor molagai in 3-4 tbsp of oil over medium-low heat, until evenly dark brown all over. Remove from the oil and place on a kitchen towel. (The remaining oil can be kept for use later, or discarded.)

2. Heat the fresh oil in a pan and drop in the tempering ingredients over high heat. Cover and let the mustard seeds pop.

3. When the urad dal turns reddish in colour, add the chopped green beans and stir well. Lower the heat to a simmer and cover the pan. Let the beans cook till done to your taste.

4. Crush the fried mor molagai and add it to the cooked green beans. Stir well. Most likely you wont need to add extra salt because of the salt in the chillies.